Ever tried Altras? Coach Jeff (podcaster in Australia) always claims to have duck feet and swears by them because they give him the toe room he wants. On the down side, they are zero drop, which may require adaptation time for you.

I'm using a 220 as a temporary replacement for a 310XT with a broken strap. Overall, I like the 220 for its fast lock, bluetooth sync, and watch features. I miss the 310XT's breadcrumb trail, data field for HRmax%, four fields on one screen. I have never missed the wi-fi upload offered by the 620 as I always have a phone around in bluetooth partnership with the 200, which loads up the latest outing as I come in the door. I have yet to investigate whether either will support downloading and following a course planned in advance.

It's a good book, though a bit vague on whether it's time or distance at 80/20. I have it on ipad. At least it makes a serious attempt to sum up some research (e.g. by Steven Seiler) rather than just pontificate. I like the style of training one ends up with. As it happens, the marathon heart rate plan, intermediate level, built into Garmin Connect, fits well with this method. I keep an eye on heart rate percentages I have run, with the help of Strava and Fetch.

I go with Gideon and Craig et al. The book "Tread Lightly" goes into this. Shin splints could indicate you are overstriding (a common bias) ie your heel is too far forward of your centre of balance on landing, so when your heel slams into the ground there is a lot of leverage around your heel trying to make your forefoot slam down, which the front of the shin resists in a classic "eccentric" contraction (muscle is in contraction while it is forced to lengthen) that causes muscle pain later. If you think this is the case, try to shorten your stride a bit, within the parameters of what still feels fairly natural.

There is a danger with both a minimal or maximal shoe if this describes you: the former could possibly make the strike even more painful whereas the latter could let you continue with bad form. The back pain could also be to do with this - leaning forward rather than keeping straight and leaning at the ankle. Of course, this is all speculation since I haven't seen you run!

The most common mistake when trying to get a good time is to start too fast and then get a bad positive split. I quite often stand with a 3:45 group when I expect to get about 3:20 to 3:25 for example. Admittedly this is a bit frustrating at the start, but just relax and let a bit of space develop for a k or two. Then start to reel everyone in from half to two thirds in. It's very satisfying and lets you get close to an ideal flat effort/pace. If you ask me, it's a blessing in disguise.

There is no medical evidence anyway that "structure" in the sense of somehow trying to prevent overpronation suceeds. Trail-running shoes, even accepting this motion-control hypothesis for the sake of argument, don't make sense because the foot and ankle angle is anyway forced by the constantly changing terrain on which the foot lands: your foot and ankle are going to bend this way and that regardless. There are of course trail-running shoes with more or less cushioning, viz the counterswing to maximalist shoes such as Hokas vs the minimalist trail shoes such as Altra.

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